Two teenagers have been charged in connection with a massive cyber attack on Transport for London last year.
This follows a National Crime Agency investigation into the incident, on August 31 last year, which investigators believe was carried out by members of the online criminal collective known as Scattered Spider.
The two teenagers – named as Thalha Jubair, 19, from Tower Hamlets, and Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall, West Midlands – were appearing on Thursday afternoon at Westminster magistrates’ court.
TfL was forced to shut down its own IT systems after the hack, exposed the email and home addresses of about 5,000 passengers.
This resulted in massive inconvenience – and extra expense - to thousands of passengers entitled to travel concessions, as Zip cards and 60+ Oyster cards could not be issued or renewed.
Jubair and Flowers were arrested at their home addresses on Tuesday by the NCA and City of London Police.
The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised charges of conspiring together to commit unauthorised acts against TfL, under the Computer Misuse Act.
Flowers was initially arrested on September 6 last year, at which point NCA officers identified further potential evidence of offending against US healthcare companies.
As a result, Flowers has also been charged with conspiring with others to infiltrate and damage the networks of SSM Health Care Corporation and attempting to do the same to Sutter Health’s networks, both based in the US.
Jubair has additionally been charged with failing to disclose the pin codes or or passwords of devices seized from him.
Paul Foster, head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said: “Today’s charges are a key step in what has been a lengthy and complex investigation.
“This attack caused significant disruption and millions in losses to TfL, part of the UK’s critical national infrastructure.
“Earlier this year, the NCA warned of an increase in the threat from cyber criminals based in the UK and other English-speaking countries, of which Scattered Spider isa clear example.
“The NCA, UK policing and our international partners, including the FBI, are collectively committed to identifying offenders within these networks and ensuring they face justice.”
Last December, The Standard revealed that the cyber attack had cost TfL about £30m.
This included £5m on “external support” to help it respond to, and recover from, the incident. A year on, TfL has not been able to restore all its systems – the live feed previously provided via its “jam cams” is still unavailable.
Last year, London mayor Sadiq Khan admitted that a “big number” of Londoners had been left out of pocket as a result of having to pay higher fares as a result of the cyber attack.
A TfL spokesperson said: “We welcome this announcement by the National Crime Agency that two people have now been charged in relation to the cyber incident which impacted our operations last year, and continue to support them with their ongoing law enforcement investigation.
“The security of our systems and customer data is extremely important to us. We continually monitor our systems to ensure only those authorised can gain access and continue to take the necessary actions to protect TfL.”
Hannah Von Dadelszen, chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service has decided to prosecute Thalha Jubair and Owen Flowers with computer misuse and fraud related charges.
“Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings.”
The charges alleged that the pair, conspired with “persons unknown”, to cause a “risk of serious damage to human welfare/national security” between August 29 and September 6 last year, and “commit knowingly unauthorised acts against computer systems belonging to Transport for London causing or creating a significant risk of serious damage to human welfare and intending or being reckless as to whether such damage was caused”.
